• Agriculture Ministry has proposed to double the allocation for the sector to Rs 1,300 crore annually in coming years
• It has also proposed to bring additional 25 lakh hectares under organic farming in the next 5 years.
• The current organic farming coverage of 28 lakh hectares is a measly 2% of the total farm land.
• Zero budget farming expert Subhash Palekar thumbed down the government’s move saying it was a foreign concept and destroys fertility of the farmland

In a serious push to natural farming within the nation, the Agriculture Ministry has proposed to double the allocation for the sector to Rs 1,300 crore yearly. The Center has supplied Rs 660 crore to help the sector in its funds estimate (BE) for FY21. In a presentation to the Fifteenth Finance Fee, the Agriculture Ministry has proposed to convey extra 25 lakh hectares underneath natural farming within the subsequent 5 years. The present natural farming protection of 28 lakh hectares is a measly 2% of the entire farm land.

The federal government has been selling natural farming within the nation by varied central schemes. The transfer is geared toward decreasing the usage of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and progress regulators. States corresponding to Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Sikkim have boosted natural farming by offering varied incentives and help.

In January 2016, Sikkim was declared India’s first 100% natural state. Regardless of the federal government’s push for natural farming, its adoption has been sluggish. In comparison with a few of the European nations, the entire acreage underneath natural farming is far decrease. As per Eurostat, the entire space underneath natural farming within the European Union (EU) has been growing through the years. In 2018, the entire space underneath natural farming was 13.four million hectares of the agricultural land.

This made up about 7.5% of complete EU agricultural land in that 12 months. Moreover motivating farmers to take up natural farming, India has been pushing for exports of natural merchandise particularly vegetables and fruits. As per Agricultural and Processed Meals Merchandise Export Improvement Authority (APEDA), complete exports of natural merchandise in worth phrases recorded a 50 per cent leap in 2018-19 to Rs 5,151 crore. Among the many main meals gadgets that had been shipped out from the nation included flax seeds, sesame, soybean, arhar (purple gram), rice and tea. The US and European Union (EU) member-countries had been the most important consumers of those natural merchandise.

However not everybody is happy about natural farming. Subhash Palekar –  the pioneer of Zero Funds Pure Farming (ZBNF) – mentioned that natural farming is a overseas technique and shouldn’t be inspired when the federal government is stressing on AtmanirbharBharat.

“AtmanirbharBharat means Swadeshi. Natural farming will not be Swadeshi and it destroys the fertility of the land. It’s far dearer than standard farming utilizing chemical fertilizers. The enter value is much increased in case of natural farming. It is past my understanding that whereas the federal government is speaking about Atmanirbhar Bharat it has determined to advertise natural farming. This coverage will not be proper,” Palekar mentioned.

Agriculture coverage professional Vijay Sardana mentioned that there was no dependable information to conclude that productiveness goes up in natural farming. “There is no such thing as a subject in pushing for natural farming however the authorities also needs to spell out its meals safety plan. Then, the opposite subject is natural merchandise are offered at a premium so solely the wealthy can afford to purchase,” Sardana mentioned.